[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 23, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                THE PRISON MANAGEMENT RELIEF ACT OF 1994

  (Mr. CANADY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. CANADY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a bill that I 
will introduce tomorrow, the Prison Management Relief Act of 1994. 
Federal courts are introducing into the management of State prison 
systems in America, placing arbitrary caps on prison populations and 
forcing the early release of prisoners. Currently 39 States are 
burdened by Federal court orders, or consent decrees, that limit inmate 
populations or require systematic improvement of conditions in their 
correctional facilities. Nine States are under court order covering 
their entire prison systems.
  In Florida alone, 20,350 inmates were released in 1992-93 to maintain 
the State's prison population within its court-mandated capacity.
  Just this last weekend a tragedy occurred in Ocala National Forest 
because a criminal was released early from a Florida prison. John 
Edwards was murdered and his sister was brutally raped and beaten by 
two men. One of the men had been released from a Florida prison after 
serving less than one-quarter of his sentence.
  Mr. Speaker, we must shut the revolving door of our Nation's prisons. 
The Prison Management Relief Act will help prevent courts from placing 
arbitrary population caps on State prison systems. Passage of this 
legislation is one important step we can take to at least slow down the 
revolving door. The provisions of this bill are already part of the 
Senate crime bill and should be a part of any anticrime bill this House 
passes.

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